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NYU Medical Center Public Affairs
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Email: Jennifer.Berman@nyumc.org

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NYU Radiology CT
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NYU Medical Center Installs 64-Slice CT Scanner SOMATOM Sensation 64 Delivers Sharp Images in Less Than Ten Seconds

New York, September 19, 2005 – NYU Medical Center is one of the first medical centers in the city to install a 64-Slice computed tomography (CT) scanner at NYU‘s Biomedical Imaging Center, and is presently using it to scan cardiac patients.

Today’s multislice CT scanners contain a host of technical improvements, including the ability to capture 64 slices, in a single scan, yielding images of arteries down to 1.5 mm in diameter. This is proving to be sufficient for detecting and characterizing blockages in heart vessels and determining who is in need for further testing or treatment. The higher resolution and the speed of the imaging allow radiologists to see details of the anatomy never before possible.

In addition, the test is much shorter and less invasive than a traditional coronary angiogram and can give additional information on the heart structures not offered by conventional coronary angiograms. The entire process takes about 30 minutes, mostly for preparing the patient; the scan itself takes a mere 10 to 12 seconds.

NYU patients now have a non-invasive alternative-cardiac CT angiography, which generates images by passing a series of x-rays through the body, creating image “slices” that are reconstructed by computer to create three-dimensional pictures. A contrast solution is injected to increase the visual detail, although in this case the material is administered intravenously into an arm vein, eliminating the potential complications associated with direct arterial catheterization.

Radiologists at NYU have performed about three hundred scans using the 64-slice unit over the past year. They expect the volume of tests to increase significantly as patients and referring physicians learn about the benefits of the new technology.

“Multislice CT scanning is revolutionizing cardiac imaging, “ says Jill Jacobs, M.D., Chief of Cardiac Imaging and Associate Professor of Radiology. “In the past, if a patient had an abnormal stress test, atypical chest pain, or certain other risk factors, there was no other place to go diagnostically than an invasive study. Many patients are fearful of having a catheterization; they don’t want to have it unless it is absolutely necessary. “

The scanner is largely being used to evaluate patients who have atypical signs and symptoms or significant risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol levels or a family history of cardiac problems. It is also being used to follow patients who have undergone bypass surgery or who have been treated with cardiac stents.

The CT scanner will also be used for research including the evaluation of virtual CT colonoscopy, CT dose reduction strategies, pulmonary nodule detection and classification, detection of irregularities in articular cartilage, computer aided detection of lung and colon cancer, and evaluation of the coronary arteries for atherosclerotic disease.

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